Our Time in Reverse- What it Takes
/
Chapter 54: Time to Raise the Dead
/
So, listening to Dark Side by Shinedown. Almost over with summer cold, so? Slade is gonna put Dick under, move him while again the city goes down. Question…who is going to rock the Titans' world but a mole, from the goodearth!
Find out!
/
Slade monitored all of the passages of his time, of their time. Dick was an investment, yet Renegade had forged his promise without ever knowing how. So, who was this boy sticking to pretending as? He had to break it off. The deed was almost done.
"Slade, sir. The boy's vitals are…"
Slade switched his eye to the screens as red lights gave his momentum the proper Jumpstart to act quickly. "Secure the valves. If I see a single drop on his gown, one of you…" He turned to the staff in white masked horror. "Even thinks to slip up while under that knife, you'll be performing an extensive modification on your left arms.Allof you." He growled.
It was a threat; whether purely to stir up a commotion or end it, that part stilled his audience to have their hands moving again. The lights were too bright as the boy groaned; half-awake through them.
"M….mm…" His chest rose and fell, lips parted as he shouted every injection down to the third, the last being a few away. His eyes popped, the boy's skin ghastly paler than usual as he gasped like a fish drawing in a bottomless well.
"…..
Aah!!!~
His screams made the staff work faster, Deathstroke's eye on them and the boy, judging this event closely, all while the robots managed another standard piece of equipment a few floors over.
"MAAA…AAAGH!AA~CH!!"
"Keep him severed from that painkiller, only when I say it, start the drip." Slade said, his words distant as he paced away, the words understood as his fingers snapped only seconds past the red beeping lights. "Go. Put him under."
Dick felt a prick in his arm harden with a heat, his whole body mindlesslyBURNINGas Slade….
Dick panted, rife with sweat and tears.
Slade stood by…andwatched, watched his favorite apprentice fall apart, very slowly.
/
Raven sat and meditated on when Cy was ready to tell them all about the sweeper. Had he done it. Her head ached a little as she undid her position. She swayed, realizing the vertigo wasn't natural.
Something, someone was calling out.
~Azarath …~ She breathed in.
~Metrion….~ Her eyes lit up as sge suddenly had a great feeling that she'd divided from it.
Soul.
~ZINNTHOS.~
Her astral form floated about the tower, before it was tugged far from there. Deep, deep underground, she was dragged away against her wish to stay. Screaming as she fell, she awoke to another scream, one that looked as dangerous as the kid on the table did.
Only, she didn't know them at all.
~Adjust the dose, you buffoon!!~
A male in a white and gold set of ceremonial robes, his hair grey and kept as two horns of a demon, eyes wide and furious as he tore at the staff working ….
Sge gasped, her eyes seeing right through as the man looked on, on…
Her.
~Who….? ~
Telepathy. She had to go.
The boy on the operating table was brunette abd had green eyes. She saw that he was terrified, yet he had no control over what came next. ~Have him salvaged…no…no! I told you-
The man's piercing hatred pushed Raven out of that vision, the walls of some facility that should…
She was then placed in another vision, one if Dick, Richard. He was beside Slade at fifteen going on sixteen and he'd pointed to a door. Slade huffed, that man was …
The real deal, she swallowed.
~What's in here, sir?~
~Nothing, my apprentice. Come. Supper will be prepared shortly now that we've arrived. ~
~You said you had something important to tell me, so…is it about the promise we made together? ~
Slade shoot his head, walking along their path as the doors, without their knowing. Opened. To reveal…
The exact same table, the exact same setting as the brunette boy with green eyes, and the angry telepath.
Raven scrambled backwards, seeing as the seat was filled, the faces dissolving to breathe new images to her eyes. ~He'll be awake in a few…~
~ Was the procedure a success?~ Slade stood, his head tilted at this body, this boy….
Raven bit her lip.
It, was Richard. In the same setting as the brunette.
~Cannot say, if he exhibits the same side effects, then yes. It means, he'll be fine. ~
~ He'll bebetter.~ Corrected the mercenary. ~You're free to go, on one condition. ~ The killer narrowed his gaze at the doctor as the older make gulped.
~ If my apprentice has any defects at all, any minor levels of hysteria when he wakes up that are incurable byyourincompetent practices, then…consider your team and yourself...Terminated. ~He smiled, the doctor falling in on his feet at that lurking eye.
~Go, before you're forced to stay for supper. There isn't enough room once remodeling of the haunt, begins. We had to schedule it sooner. I thought you'd understand. ~
There in the dark shadows of the hall, the boy may have seen her, cracking open an eye as those lips spoke a soundless one wordthroughher.
~Help…. ~
/
Raven got up, swatting at invisible things as Cy was lording over her as her support, Starfire had Beastboy in her arms as a cat. He was lifted to her gurney as they tried to get through to their friend once she could see them again properly.
Her eyes watered, her fingers feeling so weak to reach back out once she dropped them.
"He did, what Jason said he could." She heaved. "What hewould do."Raven's voice trembled over this, an uncertainty that she had kept locked away, until Slade appeared to break her concentration. "Robin…we need to get in connection. That vision had two sides. Two people, being made in...to –
The sirens wailed from the ceilings, as the heroes turned to find that a breach had been made. The tower was under the threat of something, majorly impressive as the ground shook. An explosion was monitored strongly. The pulses, unnatural, as the teens saw it on Cy's arm. Cy whipped into action, Starfire right behind, dreading an actual robot onslaught.
"Watch over her, B." Cy told the younger teen as he was saluted with a nod by the green boy scout. "Yessir!" He stood as a cat chili on two legs, Raven throwing an arm over her face and groaning with embarrassment and mental fatigue.
The fight wasn't over. She didn't need their pity. Not again.
Tara carved out the basement as her suit activated to let her make a hole in the ground. "I'm going to get in his face, make him talk…" She snarled under her breath, her strength catastrophic as the signals on her suit flashed to alert her actual keeper of her escape attempt.
/
"Tara is making the first move. We'll make the second." Slade turned to Will as the bots started to adjust dials and wires on the Chronotron Detonator.
"Her suit will allow her to combat the effects of the device. It is set on a timer. As we have delivered, she will be the one to put those awful children to bed." Will nodded.
Slade agreeing that Jump was too busy at some point. Not his kind of town, not yet.
"My apprentice's procedure will take time to overcome. I'm going to stand by; Wintergreen? If the Bat tries to connect, block it out. This is –
A rumble echoed as lights flickered on and off, Slade catching his footing as the robots looked below their metal toes.
Slade, looked up though. "We were so close…"
The next crash had his arm wrench out as Will did it first. "Forget waiting awhile more! Set it off, man! This is –
The last crash was coupled together with a wormhole, and an alien lifeform finding its way into his domain.
Slade recognized them all, all three.
The Justice League.
Green Lantern.
Martian Man Hunter, he growled.
The Flash, and….
Damnhim.
Oliver Queen.
"You sure love to crash in on others' fun,Arrow." Slade sneered, Will was still keeping his hand on the dial firmly.
"Disarm and step away from the device, old timers."
"Careful, Flash." J'onn warned the speedster. "Deathstroke is not as frail as you may think."
"This little rebellion you've planned, it ain't happening." GL landed to hover over the floor. "You're powerless. Only a power crazed lunatic when you want what you came for."
"We know you've got em, the device for the nanos." Flash crossed his arms. "The heroes in that giant T told us all about how you've been stalking those kids recently. You even went and thought you could brainwash one of our own."
"He nevermadean oath, as I recall." Slade snorted. "That boy won't have a choice but to stay. Freeze, then. Together."
Will teamed up as Flash was not quick enough. The man distracted him wkth that damned eye.
That gaze, and before he knew it…
The device was powering up.
/
Time around them, going into pixelated frame by frame. Freeze frame. There was a stutter, a split, as if this reality had become fractured to bits in the flex of a camera lens, when in reality...Slade had frozen the entire city of Jump.
One by one, Flash stumbled and saw his steps, gasping as he tripped. "Tur – n…th- a- t - b- ac- k!"
Slade cocked his head, and GL saw the difference.
" W- e – a r- e -e- ff- ec- t – ed, n- ot- y-o-u?"
Slade laughed a little at their miscalculation. "You guessedcorrectly. The device only affects those who have not protected themselves beforehand, from the machine's side- effects. My ability is no secret; the fact that I took the extra edge off much sooner, means thatwecan proceed with destroying the Titans and now claiming this city. Will?" Slade turned to his elder partner. "Reset the dial."
Will nodded, conditioning on him as well, further working as with the robots, to not have them say stop. "I do hope these, heroes can be discarded from the lair. The senior
league members might very well trip the trap you intend to set in motion, Slade. Don't be so overconfident."
"Maybe so. I'll have them sentenced for now, to their own waiting room, then we can work in advance to prevent any new mess ups." Slade snapped his fingers as in the background, someone heard the man and opened its eyes.
/
The while walls, the lit room, the ache in his veins as he tried to pull through the pain. As if boils had exploded onto his face as an acid - bathed patient, Dick Graysonscreamedout, all alone with only the heartless robots there to adjust the teen's drip and strap him further to his cold, metal cot.
/
Did Slade mess up?? Find out! RAVEN CAN SEE THROUHH WALLS, TIME AND SPACE. Any guesses at who that kid was with the horn headed rude adult? Find out!!